Rough seas prevent Obama visit to Mandela jail
Rough seas have forced Michelle Obama to abandon a visit to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was jailed for 18 years.
The visit to the island, a half-hour ferry ride from Cape Town, was to be an emotional high point of the US first lady's South African tour.
Mandela was jailed for his role in the movement to abolish apartheid, South Africa's system of racial separation. Apartheid ended in 1994, when Mandela was elected president several years after he again became a free man.
Aides said Mrs Obama was looking forward to the visit and seeing the tiny cell where Mandela was kept.
Instead she toured a museum that focuses on the forced segregation of a once vibrant and racially mixed area of Cape Town.
They also heard stories from Ahmed Kathrada, a former political prisoner and anti-apartheid leader who was jailed on Robben Island with Mandela.
The museum memorialises a sector of Cape Town that was established in 1867 as a racially mixed area but was forcibly segregated in 1965. Non-whites were removed to barren outlying areas and their homes in District Six were destroyed.
Mrs Obama has been travelling with several family members, including daughters Malia and Sasha; her mother, Marian Robinson; and a niece and nephew.
The first lady and her entourage arrived in South Africa late on Monday and were to fly to Botswana on Friday.
